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Natural Gas Health and Environmental Hazards
Natural gas is a fossil fuel that is often promoted as "cleaner" than coal, but which has its own serious environmental hazards. Natural gas extraction threatens ecosystems from northern Alaska and Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, including drilling on farms, public lands, forests and parks, in the Rocky Mountains and other coal-field communities, off of U.S. coastal waters and possibly even under the Great Lakes. Pipelines and compressor stations add to the harms, crossing all sorts of ecosystems. Even water bodies like Lake Erie and the Long Island Sound have faced proposals to bury pipelines underwater in trenches that involve stirring up toxic sentiment accumulated on lake/sound floors. Natural gas power plants are significant air pollution sources, releasing hazardous air pollutants, global warming pollution and fine particulate matter.
Since around 1997, there have been somewhere on the order of 1,000 proposals for new natural gas power plants in the U.S. Approximately 90% of power plant proposals in the late 1990s were for natural gas. Only about 400 of these were built and some aren't even operating, because of high gas prices. Many were defeated by local opposition or withdrawn for economic reasons, since the industry went overboard.
97% of natural gas consumed in the U.S. is from the U.S. and Canada. However, natural gas production has peaked in North America. More wells are drilled but less gas is being found. Between 1999 and 2004, natural gas prices have tripled as imports from Canada slowed and domestic production failed to keep up with demand. To feed the increasing demand, liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals are being proposed, to enable imports so that the U.S. can use its military might to dominate the world competing for the remaining natural gas, now that oil production has started peaking globally. Natural gas is expected to peak globally around 2020, leading to serious global conflicts as China and other large and growing economies continue down the path of increased dependence on fossil fuels. The U.S. has 5 existing LNG terminals and approximately 60 additional LNG terminals have been proposed, though the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has estimated that only 10 are needed (6 in the U.S.) to meet short-term demand in North America. More than this number have already been approved.
Natural Gas Contaminants and Health Hazards
Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)
Terrorism/Accident Risk
Opposition to LNG:
- reEarth (opposition to Bahamas LNG terminal)
- LNG Watch (California anti-LNG network) and their excellent Resources page
- RiverVision (opposing 5 proposed LNG terminals in Oregon)
- LNG Danger To Our Communities (Consumer Protection Attorney Tim Riley)
- Mobile Bay Watch (Mobile, AL)
- Vallejo for Community Planned Renewal - successful effort that stopped LNG in Vallejo, CA
- No LNG in Long Beach (Long Beach, CA)
- LNG Ignites Controversy (Humboldt Bay, CA)
- Save the Brewsters (MA)
- Coalition for Responsible Siting of LNG Facilities (Fall River, MA)
- Safer Waters in Massachusetts (Nahant, MA)
- FairPlay for Harpswell (Harpswell, ME)
- Save Passamaquoddy Bay - voters reject LNG terminal in Maine
- Sierra Club of Mississippi (Pascagoula, MS)
- LNG Community Focus (Logan Township, NJ)
- Broadwater facility (Long Island Sound, NY / CT)
- Philadelphia LNG Proposal (PA)
- Rhode Island for Safe Energy (RISE) (fighting expansion of Providence, RI LNG terminal and proposed terminal by Weaver's Cove in Fall River, MA)
- Border Power Plant Working Group (US/Mexico border region)
- Greenpeace Mexico (Baja California, Mexico)
PCBs in Natural Gas
Understanding Title V of the Clean Air Act
Pipeline Safety
Local Community Groups That Fought Natural Gas Power Plants
Natural Gas Corporations
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http://www.energyjustice.net/naturalgas/
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